Marseille City of Culture Blog

This is the sister blog to the website Marseille City of Culture. Here you'll find information about our selection single performances and short exhibitions in Marseille. For information on longer running events and exhibitions, see our web site. For other information (some will be in French) see our facebook or our Google+ page.

Marseille City of Culture (Google+)

Saturday, 1 June 2013

It's the fête du vélo this weekend so everyone get on your bikes and celebrate.

On Sunday there's a bike parade that starts at the Vieux Port at 10am with musical accompaniment provided by the big band Swing Swing Souabe. There are rallying points all over the city and if you arrive by train at the Gare Saint Charles you'll be offered breakfast at 8:30am at the Square Narvik. There is entertainment all along the route. This is your chance to cycle along the Corniche without having to dodge the motobikes and cars.

Saturday, 18 May 2013

It's European museums night on 18 May so get out there and visit that museum or art gallery you've always intended to see but never quite got around to. Today they're open late and the'yre free. What's more some of them have extra live performances around the theme of the flowers of May.

At the Musée Grobet Labadié (140 Boulevard Longchamp) there is a perfomance by a flautist, Agnes Royon le Mee, and a singer/actor, Danielle Stephan, called Chante Fleurs et Chante Flûtes.

Thursday, 9 May 2013

Go along to the Plages du Prado North at 3pm or 9:30pm on Friday or Saturday to see Traction, a ballet with people and JCBs. It's a production by British performance company Motionhouse, it's part of the Folle Histoire des Arts de la rue, a series of street performances taking place all over the area and it's free. What more could you ask.

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Don't be fooled by the title "This is [not] music", there is in fact music involved in this 47 day extravaganza of art, urban sports (including extreme sport demonstrations), concerts and films focusing on street culture. You can catch up with the Undertones (27 April) or Pete Docherty (3 May) at the Cabaret Aléatoire, watch skateboarding exhibitions and competitions, films and live performances, all at the Friche de la Belle de Mai.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Fed up with watching Bruce Willis save the world? Looking for something that takes a little longer to get into and understand? The international festival of boring films is for you. In the international fesitval of film chiant you will not find US blockbusters. On the opening night at Variétés cinema for 11€ you can see films such as Please Say Something by David O'Reilly, a masterpiece of digital expression, and Enjoy Poverty by Renzo Martens, a film that flies in the face of those humanitarian documentaries that get everywhere.

On 3 April at the Protestant Temple 15 rue Grignan there's a cine concert, four musicians accompany Katarina Golubeva in her wanderings around Siberia, a concert by Toboflex and radical brutist guitarist Eric Menkkinen. There's a "mise en bouche", Moondawn by Argentinian Pedro Lopez, whose electronic sounds accompany another film featuring Golubeva. All for 11€, you can reserve by e-mail here

Friday, 15 March 2013

Babel Med brings together music professionals, performers and the general public over three days and three nights at the Dock des Suds. There will be four stages, 36 concerts and 190 artists from around the world.

Among the 11 performances on Thursday you can see the Tajik-Israeli Alaev Family, Spanish percussion orchestra Coetus, and Du Bartas with their traditional music from the Languedoc.

On Friday there are 13 acts including Afro-European Jazz from Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze, Congolese Rumba with Black Bazar and a "brilliant musical stroll along the shores of the Bosphorus" with the Turkish Taksim Trio.

Tickets cost 15€ per night or you can get a 3 night pass (exclusively from FNAC) for 35€, which we think is a bargain price for so much quality and variety. For practical information in English about tickets and how to get there visit the Dock des Suds website.

Friday, 22 February 2013

If you're a fan of contemporary circus, if you're curious, if you saw Knitting Peace, or if you regret not having seen it, here is another event that you should not miss. It's called Somewhere and Nowhere and it's about immigration. This production is a collaboration between Marseille based Archaos and Orit Nevo, an Israeli circus performer. It's a combination of theatre, circus and dance. Highly recommended.

It's at CREAC at 8:30pm on 22nd and 23rd and 4pm on 24th and it costs 16€. You can book via the MP2013 website or take a chance and pay when you get there. If you're using public transport, there's a bus leaving outside CREAC ten minutes after the performance to take you back to Bougainville metro.